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The new year has dawned with a struggle for law enforcement in Houston as police there recently reported 26 slayings in the first two weeks into 2022.
This year’s 26 killings in 14 days is up more than 50% from last year, when 16 were reported during the same time frame.
“We can attribute this back to the issue of letting people out of jail, not holding people accountable for their actions,” Doug Griffith, president of the Houston Police Officers’ Union, told Click2Houston.com.
Griffith was referencing the bond system, which means felony suspects “are getting right back out” soon after they are booked.
Houston’s first homicide of the year occurred early on New Year’s Day, when a 24-year-old mother of three was gunned down at a local bar, Houston Daily reported.
The increase comes on top of 2021’s numbers that were 17% higher than those of the previous year. The city reported 473 homicides in 2021, according to KHOU. Though the number has been going up for the past two years, totals are still well off the city’s high of more than 700 slayings in 1981, that station reported.